Thursday, June 11, 2015

Reuse It Or Lose It

“This [garage gallery] doesn’t really transcend its
‘garage-ness’.” –Keith, when we went to a gallery in a garage this one time.

Those words were sort of reverberating in my head
when I took a trip to Chicago this past weekend. It was a strange weekend for
me. I oscillated back and forth for about 4 months about the decision to attend
an environmentalist march on Saturday in Minneapolis. I attempted to arrange a
bus from Milwaukee to Minneapolis. It didn’t work out. I was disappointed, but
also sort of relieved, because I knew it would have been an exhausting day.
However, when I woke up that morning I had that familiar feeling in my gut
telling me to “get out and do something.” Since I couldn’t go to Minneapolis, I
drove to the only place I could think of that made sense for a spontaneous day
trip.

When I got to Chicago the inner city traffic was
terrible, so I parked my car (filled with half of my wardrobe and belongings
since I am currently in between apartments) on a side street in Humboldt Park.
I walked a mile and a half to get to the place I had in mind, which was a small
store that I had been following on Instagram called The Wasteshed. The store’s
mission is to sell donated art supplies at a highly discounted rate. I was
interested in seeing the store because I have recently been noticing how
unaffordable art supplies are, and thinking that Milwaukee could use a store
like this (particularly after the tragic closing of Artist and Display). I
wanted to analyze the store to see how this idea was being executed.

The store was awesome. I cannot stress this enough.
I ended up with a bag of goodies for only five bucks. They had everything an
artist could want: colored pencils, water colors, canvases, yarn, ribbon,
markers, brushes, sketchbooks, frames, wrapping paper, and MORE, all donated
from various artistic institutions around the city. The highly discounted price
was not a lie; a watercolor set purchased from a regular art supplies store
probably costs a minimum of $8.00. At the Wasteshed you could buy a
slightly used set for only $0.50! It was as if I had just discovered Savers and
the Fox Valley Thrift Shoppe all over again.

I ended up chatting a bit with the girl who was
working the register. I asked her how the heck this store could even exist if
the prices were so cheap. “That’s a good question,” she said in earnest. I
found out that the store basically functions as a nonprofit, with most of its
support coming from grants and donations. There is only one paid staff member;
the rest are volunteers. You can read more about how the store came into
existence here.

While I think the idea of operating a nonprofit,
recycled art supplies store is awesome, I thought that a bit more effort could
have been put into making the store look a little bit less like a nonprofit,
recycled art supplies store. Even the name of the shop needs take itself a bit
more seriously. It felt a bit more like a junk shop or a last-minute rummage
sale. This isn’t a critique for the sake of criticism. It’s more of a “tough
love” kind of thing. It is unclear whether the bare bones presentation of the
store is due to the fact that it is so new, or if this is just the vibe that it
is going for. If the latter is the case, I think it would be in the best
interest of the store to present itself as a developing non-profit that caters
to all types of customers rather than a junk shop that is catering to the
poorest of the poor college student. Art supplies are expensive. Period. Any
person or artist at any level could pop into the store looking for some colored
pencils or bubble wrap.

The rest of the day continued the trajectory of
weirdness. After the Wasteshed I was feeling tired and had pretty much resigned
to go home when my friend Alli and boyfriend Evan pulled up in their car right
next to me. They had no idea I was in town, and I was not even close to where
they live. I hopped in their car and they abducted me.

I spent the rest of the day wandering with Alli,
looking at other store window displays and merchandising. I anticipated the
coming week when I would be starting a new job doing exactly what I had just
criticized: taking a whole crapload of stuff and turning it into something nice
to look at.

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About This...

I am an artist, writer, and blogger who writes about art, the environment, travel, and the intersection of the three. View my writing samples below or peruse this blog. I can be contacted at rachele.m.krivichi@gmail.com for freelance writing inquires.